India , contacts or information please

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Richie B

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Hi anyone have any first hand info of India or a contact in India ?
A friend and I are planning to fly to southern India and buy or hire bikes to travel around on for 3 or 4 weeks. We dont want to do the guided tour thing, just drift around on our own discovering the wonderful county and people.

cheers in advance

Richie :thumby:
 
Sonny motorcycles in Delhi is where I'd be heading is that too far north ? I have a mate in goa who runs trips all over india I will see if he has contacts , may take a few days
 
Hi, I've been to India 3 times but on organised tours. The last outfit I went with had the bikes provided by indiabikes.com, and they have depots around India. They did a really good job of keeping us all mobile for the holiday & their bikes all seemed in good condition & well maintained.
 
Sonny motorcycles in Delhi is where I'd be heading is that too far north ? I have a mate in goa who runs trips all over india I will see if he has contacts , may take a few days
Hi yeah Delhi is to far north,but the contact in Goa sounds promising, cheers. can you PM me details please. cheers Rich
 
Hi, I've been to India 3 times but on organised tours. The last outfit I went with had the bikes provided by indiabikes.com, and they have depots around India. They did a really good job of keeping us all mobile for the holiday & their bikes all seemed in good condition & well maintained.

Cheers , will check them out
 
Hi yeah Delhi is to far north,but the contact in Goa sounds promising, cheers. can you PM me details please. cheers Rich

Hi Richie He's in the Himalayas at present . But you may get him through Nomadic Knights , his Tour company . Alex Pirie is him

Heres his website , The bikes are in the Himalayas at present , but he could put you in touch with someone down south Cheers

http://www.nomadicknights.com/
 
Hmm ....

I lived there relatively recently , for two yrs (05 / 06) , have been back twice - once to ride from Pondicherry to Delhi (a month easy .... not a big country) , and this year for three weeks , just to chill (keep warm actually) and eat nice Indian food (and live cheaply).

Good idea - in terms of DIY , forget buying - you can't legally !!. I was resident , so therefore could and did ! (new 500 Bullet , for £1250 , including a years ins , and "lifetime tax" ... for 15 years)

Too much info to write , this year , the dearest I saw in Pondy (Bullet hire) was 650 rupees per day , for a modern one (EFI etc) .... I am sure a deal could be done for a longer period.

Be prepared to " change" your UK views on rules of the road , otherwise you may not come home. I have only done about 16,000 km there , so am not an expert ... but it's an "interesting" experience.

pm me for a phone number if interested , and I can tell more / answer questions.

cheers
 
Hi

Do you need to determine what is best time to go first, if going down south from memory I decided around xmas and new year - we went February I think when is was not too humid or hot and not rainy season - (From memory and thats not great.)

We went from Goa, then headed down the coast and slightly inland, so best of both worlds, got down to Kerrala

I would recommend Cochin to start, I think pretty commercial these days but nice way to ease into it and possibly hire a bike

Mysore nice city.

Hampi was brilliant, the town near by which I cannot remember off the top of my head was great, we spent a fair bit of time there.

Ride into some of the valleys where the tea plantations are, nice and cool climate, bit of restbite fro the heat

Ooty was an old brits summer resort and is surrounded my a national park and a great train up to it. Great hairpin bend getting up there

My missus went to the North and said that was also brilliant and similar to Pakistan Himalayas (we both went there), so assuming thats the case I would say that I would have also preferred the North as I am a mountain ranges and long vistas type of person.

Will try find my map out so I can give a little more info if you need it.

Have a good trip and ride safe
 
Hi

Do you need to determine what is best time to go first, if going down south from memory I decided around xmas and new year - we went February I think when is was not too humid or hot and not rainy season - (From memory and thats not great.)

We went from Goa, then headed down the coast and slightly inland, so best of both worlds, got down to Kerrala

I would recommend Cochin to start, I think pretty commercial these days but nice way to ease into it and possibly hire a bike

Mysore nice city.

Hampi was brilliant, the town near by which I cannot remember off the top of my head was great, we spent a fair bit of time there.

Ride into some of the valleys where the tea plantations are, nice and cool climate, bit of restbite fro the heat

Ooty was an old brits summer resort and is surrounded my a national park and a great train up to it. Great hairpin bend getting up there

My missus went to the North and said that was also brilliant and similar to Pakistan Himalayas (we both went there), so assuming thats the case I would say that I would have also preferred the North as I am a mountain ranges and long vistas type of person.

Will try find my map out so I can give a little more info if you need it.

Have a good trip and ride safe
Thanks for all that, yeah going in Feb , starting in Cochin and going south. Info needed on how easy it is just to rock up and hire bikes , also on how easy it is to find accommodation without pre booking ??
cheers Rich
 
Thanks for all that, yeah going in Feb , starting in Cochin and going south. Info needed on how easy it is just to rock up and hire bikes , also on how easy it is to find accommodation without pre booking ??
cheers Rich

This is at least 10 years ago now, but bike rental and accommodation was pretty easy to sort. I would not have an issue rocking up and hiring a bike then setting off. I would put it out on Horizons unlimited HUBB, they will be able to give you upto date info.

Cheers

Simon
 
Just go - accom available everywhere ..... not what you might expect sometimes , but people travel by road all the time and generally need places to sleep - plenty of "lodgings " available .... and often a(n ??) hotel , is just a place to eat !
Never had a problem finding somewhere to stay - often had to look at 2 or 3 till I found one we liked and, was able to negotiate a deal !!
 
I could be wrong, but I thought Sonny also had a branch down south somewhere, he's one of the honcho dealer/ mechanics in Delhi/Manali.

For accommodation you'll have no problems, depending what budget your on, you can always stay posh in some touristy places but for some little towns you'll have to rough it with the backpackers. Here's a link to my old website if you click on the bold hotel name it will show you a few pics and a bit more info. http://www.justimagesonline.com/travel_info/hotels.htm and the old blog is http://www.justimagesonline.com/blog.html

India, you'll either love it or hate it and being there on a bike for 2 years the main aim of the day is to survive the roads :D
 
You'll also get to meet all sorts of interesting people, and a few dodgy characters. There was one in Chennai called Richie, I think? That was Jan 09 so he's probably moved on by now, hopefully I'll bump into him and his family somewhere else on this little planet. ;)
 
If you start in Cochin, head into the tea plantations at Munar, very nice and from there ride down to the town of Kumily, great biking roads.

Have a look at this link


Hi Richie

How did you go on in India with the sprogs, and how did you wing the time off with school. Your little uns look a fair bit older than mine, but fancy a bit of a similar trip with them, either Argentina / Peru etc or India........more practical education than all text book based.

Cheers Simon
 
Ha ha John, yes it was great place to meet, Chennai, hotel Broadlands, what a great place.

Simon, In answer to the question, my kids were home schooled, Tom up till he went to College at 18 and Neil finished primary school at home and decided he wanted to go to Secondary school. They both loved the travelling, but Neil not as much as Tom and when Tom was too old to come with us any more was when Neil decided he wanted to go to school, travelling with his parents and no brother was not so cool.

So my last trip was Thailand, Myanmar and India two years ago, I miss it, my misses went to India on her own for a few months last winter, and became a Yoga teacher, so we still continue the travelling.
 
Ha ha John, yes it was great place to meet, Chennai, hotel Broadlands, what a great place.

Simon, In answer to the question, my kids were home schooled, Tom up till he went to College at 18 and Neil finished primary school at home and decided he wanted to go to Secondary school. They both loved the travelling, but Neil not as much as Tom and when Tom was too old to come with us any more was when Neil decided he wanted to go to school, travelling with his parents and no brother was not so cool.

So my last trip was Thailand, Myanmar and India two years ago, I miss it, my misses went to India on her own for a few months last winter, and became a Yoga teacher, so we still continue the travelling.


Cheers thanks, would like to do a bit, just need to get then upto an age to appreciate it, miss the long trips.

Sim
 
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